Broken, tainted, frozen
by that emo chick
Summary: "Not here even a day," She tutted as she made her way back to the pastry. "And you've already met your future husband..." She mocked, shaking her head. It was my turn to laughed at her now. "Yeah, of course! Because all healthy relationships start with meeting some random guy in your basement." Tate/oc
1. New beginnings

"Why do we have to move anyways?" I asked my Mum as we trailed up the long pathway to our new house, my small luggage bag rolling behind me. She turned to me, a scowl across her normally happy face.

"You _know _why." She simply stated as she walked further onward. I looked at Banjo, my dog and shook my head. He just wagged his tail at me and I turned back to the house. I bet he wont be happy much longer. Mum had entered the house now, 'ooh-ing' and 'ah-ing' at everything new. Apparently it had come furnished, so we didn't have to take our old furniture... Mum probably wouldn't have wanted to take it anyways now that I think about it.

"Oh come look at this place!" She said happily. I entered the home to see her spinning around in the middle, looking up at the ceiling.

"Isn't it wonderful?" She asked as she turned to me, a wide smile on her face. The place was nice, it seemed old but it looked like it must have had renovations or something done to it. The real estate agent was checking in on us in 7 days, to make sure we settled OK.

"Yeah, I suppose its alright." I shrugged and began looking around, heading straight up to the stairs. I could only hope this place has a nice view. I chucked my things in the closest bedroom I could find. It was nice, it had a chalk board at the back of it and a big bed in the middle, I didn't pay much attention to it though. I missed my real home, the one I had grown up in. When Mum told me we were moving here I screamed and screamed at her, but I suppose life just doesn't work like that... which is pretty fucking stupid in my opinion. I grabbed a spotted bandanna out of my bag and headed downstairs.

"Banjo!" I yelled looking for the only semblance of my past home Mum had let me bring. I wasn't even allowed to bring my own clothes. The ones I had in my luggage at the minute I was forced to buy at some shop in Wisconsin. The clothes I was wearing I had only gotten yesterday even. Hell, the woman had even thrown out my damn underwear.

The sound of paws slowly coming around the corner caught my attention. There was Banjo, who had apparently already found the treats I had stuffed in a shopping bag and was munching on a marrow bone.

"Here Banjo." I tied the bandanna around Banjo's neck, not strangling him of course, just making him more... stylish. After I was done patting him and promising him we'd scope out the neighbourhood he trotted off to go see Mum.

"Haley! You mind helping me out?" Mum hollered from the front door.

"Coming!" I ran to the front door and took a couple of the grocery bags she had on the ground.

"Kitchens that way." She said, nodding her head to the left. The minute I walked into the kitchen I ground and looked at mum.

"What?" I pointed to the floor.

"That stupid tile pattern freaks me out..."

"Really? Your scared over a tile pattern?" She asked mocking me and proceeding to put the groceries on the bench I did the same and looked at her seriously.

"I didn't say I was scared... I said it 'freaked me out'." I said shaking my head.

"Why?" She asked incredulously.

"Mainly? Because in _every _horror movie, when there's floor tiling like _that_," I said pointing to the ground.

"Someone has _always _died either on it, or in the house." I said walking away.

* * *

It was around 7:30 when they had stopped unpacking. They had only arrived at around noon, so their timing was good if they wanted to go out for tea. Haley was upstairs, searching around the attic, looking at the 'creepy old junk', whilst Alison organised the kitchen.

She had given up asking her daughter to do things for her around the house. Half an hour ago she had asked her to hang up a dangling plant in the kitchen saying 'swing it in the kitchen'. She was then met with her daughter singing 'sweet cherry pie' by Poison and then dancing off, doing all sorts of flips she had learnt whilst going to gymnastic classes a few years back.

Haley had quit though, even though she had displayed 'amazing potential' as her coach had said, she didn't feel right being around those girls. Bitching about the other girls, cooing over the 'hot guys'. Sure, she was good but she couldn't stand it and after her coach had told her 'lose the tits' that was the final straw. Haley wasn't a girlie-girl, but she 'sure as hell didn't want to be flat-chested'.

"Hey! MUM! Come look!" Alison made her way out of the kitchen and looked up at her daughter who was at the top of the stairs. All she could do was stare and try to hold her laughter in. Up on the top stairs was her daughter, dressed in a full body leather suit, obviously made for a man.

"Don't I look sexy?" Haley said winking at her mother and laughing.

"Where the hell did you find that?" Alison said shaking her head.

"The attic, it's got some pretty wicked stuff up there, old time-y dresses, baby clothes, shit like that." She said twirling around so her Mum got the 'full view'.

"You know that's made for a man right?" Her daughter looked at her suspiciously.

"You sure? Because I'm a chick and if it were any tighter around the legs, I'd lose circulation... I cant imagine a dude wearing this... comfortably." She added the last word wincing and looking down. The suit was too big for her, the 'sleeves' of it hung off of her hands, a good inch dangling and the same with her legs.

"Take that thing off!" She said shaking her head.

"I've been trying to for the past half hour! I'm fairly certain I'm glued in here." Her mother finally losing all control burst out laughing. After she finished laughing at her daughters misfortune she looked back up at her daughter.

"Please... help me."

* * *

After a good half an hour of pulling, yanking, chaffing, and cussing, the suit was finally off of Haley. Her arms were a little red, aswell as her neck from the rubbing the leather did, but she concluded that she would _never _try and put that thing on again, lesson well learned. She was in the kitchen now, with Alison and Banjo. Banjo munched on his food and Alison and Haley were leaning up against the bench in the middle, looking up places to eat.

"We could go get chinese?"

"Nahh, I don't really feel like it..."

"What would you _want _to eat then?"

"Well..." Haley said dragging the word out as she looked at the phone book.

"We could go out. To like, a fancy restaurant. Celebrating the move and all." Haley said looking at her Mum. She just wanted to eat a nice meal and then crash. After 12 hours of driving and barely getting any sleep, that will happen to you. Alison nodded, smiling at her.

"That's a good idea actually. Get changed into a dress or something and we'll head out."

* * *

Haley was dressed in the only dress she owned. It was black with long sleeves and a blue corset in the middle, the neckline dipped ever so slightly, and it ended mid thigh and flowed down the bottom, she had tights underneath that were only a little tinted and had dark spots on it. She wore black boots with the dress and straightened her black hair, curling the ends slightly. After she had gone out to dinner with her Mum she had decided she wanted to go up to the attic again. As she climbed up the steps a soft tapping noise filled her eardrums. She peaked her head finally able to see into the attic.

"Anyone here?" She almost whispered. The tapping stopped immediately and she looked around in wonder. Shrugging it off as just her mind playing tricks she climbed into the attic, going through more of the boxes. It was fascinating what was in there. In a few boxes where some clothes from the 1920's and in others there was stuff that looked like it was from the 90's. Pulling out a bumble-bee fashioned sweater she laughed to herself.

"Ahh, the 90's." She said as she continued digging through the box. She pulled out a black shirt with the writing 'normal people scare me' on it. Smiling to herself she chucked it over her shoulder and began searching through a different box. Her hand hit something hard on the bottom. She shifted everything to look at the bottom of the box. There was a gun, a rifle. Haley looked around making sure she was alone and then picked up the gun, inspecting it before wrapping it in her newly acquired shirt.

* * *

Alison was in the living room, looking through the want ads. She had no idea what kind of job she was looking for, but she needed one. The settlement had given her quite a lot of money, enough to buy a house and live comfortably for a few years, but she knew that she would go stir crazy if she had to stay in the house all day. So far she had circled a few receptionist jobs, that was it mainly. The one thing she loved to do, she wouldn't be able to any more. Not after what happened with Haley and her classmates. She wouldn't be able to work at a school ever again as a teacher...

On the plus side, yesterday her and Haley had gone out for a lovely dinner and apart from a few turned heads they seemed inconspicuous. Alison was proud of her daughter, being so strong. When she got back she didn't even cry or sob or even show signs of depression. When she got back the first thing she did was hug her Mum and then ask if all the other girls were alright. Apart from a few they were all fine and dandy, Haley's therapist said that perhaps she had repressed the memory. Although Haley knew exactly what went on, and could tell you the whole story without shedding a tear... she choked up a bit when she mentioned MJ but that was about it.

"What are you doing?" Haley's voice appeared out of nowhere and Alison realised she had scrunched up the newspaper into her fist. She stood at the door with an eyebrow raised. Alison flattened out the newspaper and smiled at her daughter.

"Just got lost in thought for a second there." Haley nodded at her Mum, although she was a little worried about her she didn't want to push too much. Not only had Haley been through a lot, but so had her Mum, I mean, she must have been worried sick for those 8 months. Haley could easily handle what had happened but her Mum, well, she was too kind. That's why Haley kept the details sketchy when she recalled the incident to her Mum and why she had begged the police and the therapist not to tell her.

"Are we gunna do anything today?" Haley asked as she slid into the chair next to her Mum.

"I think just a rest day is in order, you know, to get used to the new house. You can skulk out the neighbourhood if you want, I know you've been dying to." She smiled at her daughter. She was right, Haley had been waiting ever since they arrived to look around this place. I mean, there was only so much stuff in the attic, sure she had the basement to go but, surely the attic and basement would take longer then simply walking around the neighbourhood once or twice.

"You're awesome." Haley said before hugging her mother and heading off with Banjo to look at the neighbourhood.

* * *

"So, what do you think Banj?" Haley said as she walked along the pathway, returning to her new home. She looked around the neighbourhood a little, but after going around a few blocks and seeing some of the other old homes she had gotten bored. She thought that maybe when she got home she could check out the basement, then go back up to the attic and check out more of the boxes. She was bored... pretty much, she didn't know what she was going to do actually.

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty average too." Haley smiled down at her Wolf. His snow white coat and green eyes made him seem adorable, but, Haley knew if anyone were to threaten her, Banjo would rip them to pieces. Now, normally people in the United States (anywhere really) wouldn't be allowed to actually own a wolf... but since Banjo refused to leave Haley after her incident and after Haley was given training and told how to care for Banjo, she was given permission as well as a card to certify that Banjo, was actually legal under her ownership. It was... awesome!

"I wish there was like a skate park or something around, or a dog park, you could freak the fuck out of all the dog owners that way." Haley walked through the gate into their home. Haley was greeted with her Mum, wandering around the garden, watering the plants.

"You been doing that all this time?" Haley asked as she walked along the path, Banjo right by her side, as always.

"Pretty much, yeah. Sometimes, I dunno... our house seems just a little... eerie, dont you think?" Alison asked and Haley shook her head.

"Any house can seem creepy when you're alone in it Mum, beside, aren't you supposed to be reassuring me there's nothing wrong with our house?" Haley asked as she entered their new home, smiling to her mother as she walked in the door.

Time to check out that basement.

**Pic of Haley on profile guys :) as well as a character that will be added in later on. Hope u liked! I've already written the next 3 chapters but I will only post if I get some good reviews =P, bribery... works every time... Tate will be in the next chapter... review review review! Trust me... it gets better... promise! **


	2. The boy in the basement

When I walked down the basement steps... things seemed to become... colder. Not because it was underground or because it was made out of stone... but, because it was as if there was something else down there. I closed the door behind me, turning on the lights and grabbing my flashlight out of my pocket. I made my way down the creaking steps, one slow creak and groan at a time. When I touched the bottom the door to the basement swung open. I turned in surprise, only to release a breath I had been holding.

"Dammit boy! You scared me half to death!" I said as I shook my head at my stupidity. Banjo ventured down and stood by my side as I slowly walked into the basement. In the middle of it... for some unknown reason, there was a bathtub... in the middle of the room. I made my way over to it, checking it out. Banjo, however, decided he wanted all the attention and jumped _in _the tub, giving me a wolfish grin (pun intended).

"You stay in there much longer and I will be forced to give you a bath." I said smirking, he swiftly exited the tub, knowing my intentions.

"That's what I thought." It was quiet in here... really quiet. Banjo decided it was too, so, he started growling.

"What's up?" I said, tearing myself away from looking down the cold hallway I was previously staring at. When I looked where he was, I almost had a panic attack.

"Jesus!" I said dropping the torch. There was some random dude... in my basement...

"What the hell, dude!" I asked and grabbed my torch, shining it, purposefully, into his eyes. He put his hand up to shield his eyes.

"Do you mind?" I shook my head at him.

"What the _hell _are you doing in my basement?"

"Stop your dog from attacking me and then we'll talk." I looked down and noticed Banjo was stalking closer to him, teeth bearing.

"Banjo!"I scolded and as soon as I had said so, he was right by my side. Still glaring at the intruder, but not nearing to pounce him. I stopped shining my flash light in his eyes aswell, although I did place my left hand in my pocket, making sure I had my switch-blade on hand. I did, as always.

He relaxed and I noticed the clothes he was wearing...

"Have you been up in our attic or something?" I asked, noticing the bumble-bee sweater she had pulled out of the attic box not a day ago.

"No, but you have been." He replied simply, leaving the statement to float around in the air... it was fucking creepy.

"How did you know I was in the attic? You stalking me or something?" Banjo growled at him, we were like a team. I was good cop, Banjo was bad cop.

"You must be the new owners." He said, changing the subject, obviously I was going to get no answers and more questions from this guy.

"Yeah, we moved in like a day ago." I said relaxing... I had my knife, he couldn't touch me... besides, Banjo was here aswell.

"Just you and your dog?" He said smiling... a creepy smile. I shook my head.

"Nahh, my Mum aswell." I said shrugging.

"So... why are you down here?" He suddenly became _extremely_ interested in the walls, running a finger along a small, but noticeable crack.

"Just kinda liked it down here, I didn't realise anyone had moved in..." He trailed off. I rolled my eyes at him and put a hand on my hip.

"Well, someone has, so you should probably go..."

"I'm not leaving." I was about to unleash a fit of cussing and screaming at him but my words got caught in my mouth when Banjo began snarling beside me. He wasn't growling at the boy in basement, he was snarling at the darkness.

"Banjo..." I warned as he made his way into the darkness of the next corridor. I grabbed my switch-blade out and turned on the flash light, shining it into the darkness.

"There's nothing there boy." I said calmly, more scared about Banjo's safety than my own.

"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there." I heard the boys voice to the left of me.

"Well, thank god you're here to speak riddles!" I said sarcastically as I turned to look at him. He must have run off or something up the stairs without me noticing... because he was gone, just some dust particles floating around where he stood.

"Creepy." I whispered and noticed Banjo was still edging something on in the basement.

"Banjo! Dude, there's nothing there!" I began my ascent up stairs briefly before hearing Banjo walk up them with me. I'm guessing now that there was some random in the basement, Banjo will be my constant company from now on.

* * *

"There was some weird-o dude in the basement before." I said casually as I walked into the kitchen, where Mum was trying (and failing) at making a pie. She dropped 'pastry' onto the bench and turned to look at me, startled.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine." I reassured her, knowing she would freak out.

"Banjo was with me the whole time and I had my switch-blade." She rushed to my side, even though I had told her I was fine.

"What happened? Did he make advances? Should I call the police?" She said saucer-eyed.

"No, and no. As for what happened, he was just down there, startled Banjo and me but he left pretty soon after. He was kinda cute though... in a 'Kurt Cobain' way." I said as I played with my switchblade, twirling it around in my hands, staring off into space. I made eye contact with my Mum for the next sentence.

"And you _know _how I feel about Kurt Cobain..." I said wiggling my eyebrows. Her features relaxed and she laughed at me.

"Not here even a day," She tutted as she made her way back to the pastry.

"And you've already met your future husband..." She mocked, shaking her head. It was my turn to laughed at her now.

"Yeah, of course! Because all healthy relationships start with meeting some random guy in your basement."

"It would be an interesting story to tell your children..." She muttered, mocking me.

"Oh yeah, 'me and Daddy first met when he was skulking around in the basement... He said a lot of weird stuff that gave me the impression he was a stalker... that's when I knew we were destined to be together!'" I said clenching my heart in fake emotion. Mum laughed at me again, turning her head to look at me.

"You are an odd child, you _are _aware of that, right?" I rolled my eyes at her as I flicked the knife around my hand again and leaned on the bench, looking at the newspaper.

"Hey! You're looking for a job!" I said happily and beamed up at my Mum. She nervously rubbed the back of her neck (even though she had flour _all _over her hands) and continued on with making the pastry.

"Yeah, I mean, I was going to tell you..." She trailed off but I shook it off with one smooth motion of my hand and made my way around the counter to hug her.

"It's fine! I'm so proud of you going back working again." I said into her neck and let go of her. She smiled right on back at me, the smile she had been lacking those past 8 months... those horrible 8 months that I made her wait... If only I had gotten out sooner.

"I'm thinking about... applying down at Westfield actually..." My jaw dropped and I looked at her seriously.

"Please dear Lord, tell me _I'm _not going there.. with _you _working there." She scoffed in fake hurt and I smiled up at her.

"You're gunna be, like, the worlds worst cock-block... you realise that right?" She shook her head and went back to work on her pastry... slowly.

"That was the _exact _reason I wanted to work at the school. To stop you from getting cock..." She said shaking her head.

"Bonerkiller..." I sing-songed before grabbing one of the many berries she had an array of on the counter, and ran out of the kitchen. Her hissing at me about 'eating the pie before it's even baked'.

That tiling still creeped me the hell out though.

* * *

I had my therapy appointment today,it _sucked balls._ I didn't have to go to school for another week but therapy was bullshit. Not only was I perfectly normal and in no need of therapy, but I was fairly certain Mum needed some. And, I realllyyyy was getting sick over her asking me about the 8 months... it was completely and utter _bullshit. _

I was sitting on the stairs, waiting for the therapist to come, Mum had invited her to the house, for some un-Godly reason, and as I sat there I grew more impatient. Banjo was next to me, sitting like the loyal wolf he was.

It had been 4 days since the incident with the boy in the basement... Sometimes I would think about him though... mainly about _what the hell he was doing down there. _But, I had left him alone in my mind... for now. Speaking of alone, Mum had also left me alone. To have some 'quality time' with the therapist... like hell that was happening.

There was a knock on the door and I quickly answered it. Banjo, of course, stood up and stood by my side the whole time. I opened it up and was met with a creepy, too-much-tooth smile that my therapist always had plastered on her face.

"Hello Haley." She smiled and I put on my greeting smile. I was taught to respect elders... unfortunately.

"Hello Mrs Baxter. Won't you come in?" I said opening the door more for her. She smiled and entered, her handbag on her arm. She was a blonde around my height, but way, wayyyy older and a little more chubbier. For some unknown reason aswell she consistently wore pant-suits... Her hair was done up in a tight bun at the back of her head and her 'grandma glasses' rested on her nose that was the centre of her wrinkly face.

I closed the door and ushered her into the study. She sat on the big leather coach there and signalled me to sit next to her. I did so accordingly and kept the fake smile on my lips.

"So, how have you been Haley?" She asked and I shrugged.

"Alright I suppose."  
"Are you excited about the move?"  
"Well, I miss my friends but, I suppose it's all for the best. Mum and I needed a fresh start." She nodded her head and started scribbling notes on a notebook she had taken out of the horrible pants-suit pocket.

"Do you like your new house?" I nodded at her and played with my hands.

"Very much so, it's got character and a personality." I said vaguely.

"What kind of personality does it have?" She said looking up briefly from her notebook.

"Well..." I started, thinking of the old home.

"It's historical, old and intriguing. I mean... just imagine... once upon a time this place used to be just a plush field. Then it was turned into a home, with lots of interesting people and stories. I'd imagine if a house could talk, it would have a lot of things to say." She smiled and nodded at me.

"When are you staring school?"

"Next monday, I just needed some time to rest from the move and I wanted to come at the start of the week."

"Are you excited for school?"  
"Well... I'm not sure. I'm the new kid so I'd imagine I'd be bullied a little, but in all prospects I suppose in a way I am looking forward to it. There's only so much investigating you can do on your home before you get bored." I said shrugging my shoulder. She looked up from her notebook, with that seriously look she always gave me when she was going to start talking about the incident.

"You're not worried about a repetition of the last time you went to school?" She said, pushing her glasses back onto her face, since they had slipped down to the tip of her nose.

"I went to school a million times before that ever happened... besides, it was on a camp."

"But it was a _school _camp."  
"That may be so, but it wasn't at _school _so I figure out of the million times I've been to school and the one time I didn't make it back to school safely, that I should be just fine." She nodded and began scribbling again. Banjo, who had been sitting on the ground next to me, chose that precise moment to jump up onto me, licking my face. I smiled at him and patted his head before he made himself comfortable lying along the empty space on my left of the couch, and resting his head in my lap.

"And how are you and Bongo going?" She said trying to pat _Banjo. _He gave her a wicked snarl as she reached her hand forward. The minute he did so, she retracted her hand immediately.

"It's Banjo." I quickly corrected and patted the wolfs head.

"And he's fine."  
"He hasn't tried to harm you?" She asked, concerned he would. She always brought this up... every damn time we had therapy, one time she even outed and said that Banjo could turn on me quicker than I could scream 'help'. But Banjo wasn't like that, just because he didn't like her doesn't mean he doesn't like me.

"No, matter of fact he has been incredibly protective over me. Sleeps in the same bed, doesn't let me leave his sight. Hell, I even have to let him in the bathroom when I go in there, otherwise he begins to howl."  
"That's a little... possessive, don't you think?" She said timidly.

"No, I would call it protective." I said and patted down Banjo's back. The whole session she went on about random things. How I was feeling about leaving my friends, how I felt about my Dad now, and if I was feeling guilty about the people I had killed. Most of my answers were vague, as always, but I always smiled at her.

When the clock hit noon, she had looked down at her watch and gasped a little.

"Look at the time! Dear, I'm afraid I'll have to be off." She said, gathering her notebook and placing it back into her God-awful beige pants suit, and then heading for the door.

"I have a patient back at my actual office and the drive back is around..." She kept talking, but I had zoned out. I couldn't be bothered listening to her any more, so I just smiled politely and let her leave. When the door had finally shut, silencing her incessant blabbering, I leaned against it and closed my eyes.

"Thank god." I whispered as I sighed in relief.

"Why have you killed people?" The voice startled me and I immediately grabbed my switch-blade and looked at the voice. Banjo, who had only just registered his presence, began growling aswell.

"How did you get in here again!" I asked through clenched teeth. It was the boy... from the basement.

"I thought I told you to leave!" I hissed again and he just ignored me, moving closer towards me.

"Did you go insane? Stab a few kids then end up in an insane asylum? Just got out or something?" I looked at the clothes he was wearing, it was the same kind of shirt from the attic... how had he gotten up there _again_?

"How much did you hear?"

"Not a lot, although I _really _wish I had heard more." He said taking one last step before Banjo went into complete psycho mode. Barking, snarling, his back hairs were sticking up from his spine and his teeth were showing.

"You come any closer and I swear, I'll stab you." He put his hands up in mock defence and eyed my dog before leaning in a little.

"Boo." He said suddenly and Banjo barked loudly again.

"Stop freaking him out!" I yelled at the basement boy. I rubbed Banjo's head soothingly before death-glaring the basement boy. He wore an innocent smile on his lips and I just rolled my eyes at him.

"Why are you here again?" I said more friendly than I would have liked. I should have been aggressive... mean, but what came out instead of a snide remark? A friendly question. Dammit!

"We never got to introduce ourselves." He stated simply and nodded his head at Banjo, who was still on red alert.

"Banj, it's okay, chill budd." I said before petting him and motioning him to leave us alone. I saw him walk to the other room, but I knew he was watching us.

"I'm Tate." He said as he smiled and held out a hand... it was odd, his smile. It almost seemed... genuine.

"Haley." I said and cautiously took his hand whilst I played with my switch-blade, almost in some auto-pilot reaction to when it was in my hands.

"You liking the house so far?" He said as he turned and sat on one of the steps, smiling and patting the seat-room next to him. I walked over slowly, not really sure what his game was.

"Yeah, it's alright." I said beside him as I looked down at the blade, twirling and moving it between my knuckles. My Mum always _hated _when I did that.

"You sure you don't find it a little spooky?" He said, in a mocking tone. I looked up at him under my black bangs. I had a straight fringe across my eyebrow line with larger bangs on the end. Today I had literally just woken up, straightened my fringe and left my hair as is. I wasn't exactly expecting Kurt Cobain look a-likes to be popping up around my house... It's not like it's a common occurrence. So, of course, my hair (excluding my bangs) were in messy/tidy waves... FML

"It's not spooky... a little unusual but, it's fine." Tate leaned back, putting his hands behind his head and laying on the staircase.

"You seemed a little spooked in the basement 4 days ago." I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him.  
"Yeah, that's because there was some creeper in my basement." I laughed and he, to my surprise, laughed back.

"Sorry if I did scare you..." He said almost smugly about the fact he had 'supposedly' scared me.

"You didn't. Do you make a note of creeping around in other peoples basements?" He rolled his eyes at me that time.

"No."  
"I suppose I'm just the lucky one then, huh?"

"Seems like." He said relaxing again. It was quiet for a second, the only sound the blade I was playing with, and then I remembered his last words to me.

"What'd you mean 'Just because I couldn't see it, it didn't mean it wasn't there'?" I asked, twirling the knife nervously in my hand again.

"What'd you think I meant?" He said raising his head to look at me. I shrugged at him as I made eye contact and just looked down at my hands.

"I dunno... there are lots of things we can't technically see... But we know they're there... like loyalty... honour... bravery... love..." Tate sat up again, moving his hand around my chin and making me look up into his eyes.

"What about creatures... invisible ones... kinda like... ghosts?" It was quiet again as I thought.

"Do you believe in ghosts?"He said squinting at me and I took a gulp, thinking about my past experiences over those 8 months. I stared like a zombie at him... emotionless without even moving my eyes.

"No, I don't believe in them..." I trailed off, shaking my head before my whole face fell into a dazed expression and Tate scoffed at me.

"I know they're real." I said simply before looking back at Tate, who looked taken aback.

"And how would you know?" He said leaning in closer to me, his breath hitting my face as he did so.

"Because... unlike the 'thing' down in the basement... I have seen one..." I trailed off, thinking back to those 5 months ago.


	3. Story time!

_It was so cold, and dark, the only real thing we could hear was soft whimpers in the next room. And the 3 men... grunting, yelling, and cussing as MJ was at their mercy. She was only 18... they didn't seem to care though, they didn't care about anything that they were doing. I'd be surprised if they even had souls._

_There were 6 of us, strung up like meat on hooks. Our hands were bound by chains that came out of the ceiling and clasps that went around our wrists. Of course, no-one could touch the ground... not ever. The only time you could was when they would take you... into the other room... the one that everyone was dreading the most. _

_The youngest here was Melissa, or Mel as we called her was, was 10. Well, we used to call her Mel. I'd been here for 6 months, Janey had been here for 4, Lisa here for 3, Mel here for 2 and Sarah here for, what seemed like, a month. MJ had been here the longest, she had been here for 8 months. After the first few weeks... you lost all hope, just stopped talking, shut-down completely after that. The first months you'd scheme and plot an escape, after the 3rd you'd pray for death. _

_But our only mercy was when they would come to feed us, but even then they wouldn't make it painful. You'd have to beg, plea, cry and say exactly what they would command of you. Most times they'd tell you to say that you liked being tortured and being taken to the other room. Other times, when they were feeling particularly ghastly they would make you beg and plea for them to take you into the other room. They'd do this once a day, feeding you if you submitted. _

_I hadn't eaten not once since I was here. Not by begging._

_After about a week of me being silent, not saying anything, not giving in to what they wanted me to do, they would take me to the other room and force me to eat it as they carved into me with their knives. I never once cried though. _

_Never begged, never cried, never screamed out in pain, I never showed any sign of fear._

_Apparently the sick fucks liked to wear one girl down to nothing, completely break her spirit and then, they would discard her like common trash and go on to the next. I wasn't going to be broken... not so that they could just go on to the next and torture her. I was going to stay the exact pig-headed person I was. _

_I will not break, I will not weaver, I will not let them own me. I will not submit, I will not cry, I will not scream. I will make them pay, I will save these girls, and most importantly _I will get all of us out of here.

_There was a final yell from the other room and all the girls looked at each other. They wouldn't be using us again for at least another 2 hours or so. Not in that other room, although, they did like to play 'doctor' sometimes, which is what they were doing to MJ. Whimpers escaped the younger girls lips, the rest of us just kept still, waiting for the light that came from the other room._

_As the door slipped open, that's when I knew something was wrong. MJ, she wasn't crying, wasn't even groaning in pain... she was in the fat mans arms. Still. Quiet. Broken. Her head fell backward and in the light you could see her staring... her eyes weren't moving._

_The fat man threw her, into a pile on to the floor. _

_She didn't move. _

_She didn't groan._

_She couldn't._

_All of the girls cried, except for one. Me, I wouldn't give them the satisfaction. The fat man spat on our fallen comrade, before giving a toothy glare at me. I was the next in line. The next one to be 'broken' but I wouldn't let him, I wouldn't let them. It was a test, a test to see if I would break and let them girls down. My hubris was just too big for that. _

_The fat man was still staring at me, so, gaining up all of my swagger. I looked up from underneath my outgrown hair, a wicked smile on my face as I made a kissing motion to him with my mouth. _

_In a fluster, the man left and I let out a wicked laugh. It was odd to laugh, my throat was so sore and dry from lack of water it almost hurt. But I turned to the other girls._

"_MJ is the luckiest of all of us. Her suffering is over, her pain is done. I know it's sad to see her like this... But I will not let MJ's memory fade. I will kill these men, and get all of us out of her. I swear on my life, and even if I do die, I will make sure you all get out of her. MJ was incredible, and she would have been amazing, she _was _amazing. And all I can say is that, I'm sorry Mary Jane Holstar, for not being able to save you. You will not ever leave my memory, and I will think of you, everyday, for the rest of my life. The girl, the 18 year old, the amazing person that you would have been." After my attempted 'funeral speech' and oath to the girls I looked down at the ground. We were having a moments silence for MJ. The place was as hushed as before, but it was colder, more colder than ever. There was a gasp from the other girls and as I looked up, I was in shock. MJ was there, tears in her eyes._

"_Thank you. Promise me something though, Haley." I nodded, unsure if I was from lack of food or lack of water, or if she was real. The other girls could see her too though, and they were staring at her._

"_Anything." I whispered._

"_Don't let them keep me. Get my body home, to my parents, they need me..." She said shaking and looking at me with teary eyes._

"_They need closure... and I don't want to be here. I don't want to stay a plaything of theirs for all eternity. I want to be with my family, not be buried in the place that brought me the most pain." Her voice crack and she began to cry into her hands._

"_I won't let them own you, not anymore. I'll get you home MJ, I swear it." I tried to smile at her and she smiled back, looking up from her hands._

"_Thank you. I know you will." She smiled and as I gulped for air, Mel had decided to pipe up. _

"_What's it like... being dead?" MJ smiled at the 10 year old, patting down her hair so that it wouldn't remain in her eyes._

"_It's... peaceful... I don't feel any pain anymore." _

"_I hope they kill me." Mel said, beginning to sob. MJ was about to say something but I interrupted her._

"_I won't let them Mel." I said shaking my head at the little girl. Mel sniffed and smiled at me._

"_I know you won't Haley, you'll get us all out." She sniffled out, her voice as hoarse as mine. MJ looked at all of the girls, most were crying, Sarah was hysterically crying, on the verge of a panic attack. _

"_I'll see you guys on the other side." MJ smiled at us all, teary eyed._

"_Well..." She began to correct herself as she looked at me._

"_Not for a_ really_ long time hopefully." I nodded in response. She simply began to fade away and as she left there was a stillness in the room._

"_So... about that escape plan."I said addressing all the girls. Not one more of their lives was going to be taken... not again._

* * *

I had told the story to someone... someone who wasn't my therapist or a doctor...I had told it to some guy I barely even knew! I hadn't told him how we had gotten in that hell-hole, and I hoped and prayed he wouldn't ask. After I had finished my story I had hung my head solemnly. Remembering all of those that we had lost... that were just too good for the world. That horror story only lasted a few more days though, and a hole new one began. I wasn't going to cry, not now after retelling the story, or ever about it.

"Wow." And from the corner of my eye I could see him nodding his head.

"Yeah." It came out a whisper from my lips, I wasn't exactly excited about that prospect. I wanted to seem strong... but, I seemed like a scared little girl.

"How did you... end up there?" He asked a little hesitantly. As a tear slid down my cheek I scolded myself. Dammit, don't cry for fucks sake! I shook his question off.

"I don't really feel like talking about it... well, again." I dismissed as I wiped the tear that hid slid down my cheek.

"Okay." He nodded. After about two more seconds of silence Tate got up off of the stairs with a clap to his knees and a grin.

"Meet me in the basement at midnight in 2 days. I have something to show you." He said before glancing one last time at me and exiting the house.

Nice of him to invite himself into _my _house... wonder what he wants to show me.

* * *

"I'm so happpyyyyy! 'Coz todayyy I found my friends! They're in my HEAD!" I practically screamed at the top of my lungs as I cart wheeled out of my bedroom door. I landed right infront of the stair railing and jump up, onto it, before doing a double barrel roll off of it and onto the first story floor with only a small 'bump'.

I had woken up in one of those amazing moods where nothing can get you down. I was literally dancing my way into the kitchen, sliding through the doorway on my new socks, giving Bob Segar a run for his money for sure. I was wearing my 'normal people scare me' shirt with a pair of snoopy short shorts and my knee high socks. I sure was a sight to behold. After bowing enthusiastically, to whom I thought was my mother, I straightened out my back and made my 'what the fuck' face.

Some 20 year old chick in a maids uniform stood in the kitchen clapping along with my Mum who looked like at any moment she was going to burst out into laughter.

"Thank you! Thank you!" I said bowing again and skipping to a seat near the kitchen island. Hoping that on the outside it looked like I wasn't completely mortified about the fact that some chick had seen me dancing and hear my horrible singing... in reality all that was going through my mind was 'you fucking retard'.

"You're in a happy mood." My mother regarded as she handed me a cup of, what I figured, must have been hot chocolate. I cradled the cup in my palms and smiled at the two of them.

"I had a wonderful sleep!" I exclaimed before looking at Banjo. He was wagging his tail next to me as I sipped at my hot-chocolate. Probably mocking me... But I figured since this lady had already seen me at my worst, why not just give her the whole download on what a weirdo I am.

"I dreamt of dead babies..." I remarked as I looked spaceily at my Mum who just looked shocked.

"That's not why I'm happy though! I was just trying to figure out what kind of subconscious dreams up the idea of dead babies for a nice-peaceful sleep... matter of fact the dead babies were trying to kill me..."

"Oooookaaayyyy." Mum dragged out the word as I took another sip of my drink, looking at the lady standing in the same room as me. She had a little grin on her face as she looked at my Mum... She was pretty, probably got _a lot _of attention, I mean she looked hot... and I say that in the straightest way possible.

"Moira, this is my daughter, Haley." She made a hand gesture between both of us and I smiled back at her before waving to Moira, who just smiled politely.

"Pleasure to meet you." I said beaming.

"Nice to meet you too." She said with a hand on her hip.

"She's our new maid." Mum said casually and my smile grew even wider, but before I could even say a word about it, Mum had interrupted.

"That does _not _mean you can be a complete slob. Got it?" I pouted a little before smiling again at the maid.

"Yes Ma'am." I mock saluted her before jumping up off of my seat, over Banjo, to the cupboard where I grabbed a box of 'cocoa puffs'. If I could... I would live off of nothing _but _cocoa puffs, but that's not going to happen... something about protein... or something like that.

"So, you know your way around then, huh?" Mum asked Moira. I sat back on the island seat and began shovelling cocoa puffs into my mouth using my hands. My Mum scowled at me as I did so and with a mouth full of food and a chocolate smile I grinned at her before putting on the most innocent face I could muster up.

"What?" I asked, well, I tried to ask, it just came out as 'whurrghhh' instead. I was in an impossible mood... That was always the problem with me, I was bi-polar or something... I swear.

"I know my way round, yes." Moira said as she looked at me intently, which was starting to scare me a little bit.

I shrugged it off though, I mean, what's she gunna do, kill me? Pfft...

* * *

I had a million things to do today! The real estate agent was 'checking in' on us, to make sure we were all right. I had been given a reading list 3 weeks ago about the books I would have to read because we were studying them at school. I had laundry to do, Mum wanted me to make a cake for the real estate agents arrival and if any neighbours decided to give us a friendly 'howdy' as my Mum had said. And, ontop of all of that, I _really _had to call my friends back at my home town, they were probably freaking out as is about my moving. I hadn't told them about the move, and I definitely didn't tell Harlii... she would have fucking strangled me if she knew I was moving or tied me down in some weird sex dungeon... yeah, I have weird friends.

Instead of doing _any _of these things, I was doing what any normal teenager would do when their plate is _that _full... I was procrastinating, bludging, waisting time, doing _absolutely nothing._ I was completely content with being in my room and drawing.

That's right! I draw! It was one of my favourite things to do before the incident, and I thought I'd pick it up again. I hadn't drawn in 11 months, the 8 months I was away from home, and the 3 months after it. Needless to say I was a little crappy at it.

The pencil danced on the paper as I drew... whatever the hell I was drawing. Banjo was on the bed, having some dream about hunting rabbits or something... he was doing the cutest 'dream bark' as I had dubbed them and his feet were retching back and forth. It was cute.

"Haley! I need you to do the laundry!" I rolled my eyes and walked over to my bedroom door and up to the stair railing.

"But Mu-"  
"No buts! Haley Marie you get down here and you do your chores, NOW!"

"But we have a freaking MAID! Isn't that her JOB?" There was silence bellow the stairs now and I smirked to myself. Haley 1, Mum 0.

"You still have to make that cake!" Mum yelled and I rolled my eyes. Great... Cooking... so not my forte.

"Fiiiinnnneeee." I sighed and went back in my room to clean up my drawing stuff, but as I walked closer to the desk, I noticed it was gone. I looked around the room for my drawing of a phoenix, but I couldn't see it anywhere. I looked around on the surrounding floor and I even inspected Banjo... no where.

"Curiouser and curiouser..." I mused as I clapped my hands signalling for Banjo to wake up. His head popped up to attention and him jump to my side.

"Come on Elmer Fudd... time to go bake a cake." I looked at his doggy eyes and saw disbelief and confusion.

"I'm not _that _bad of a cook Banj..." I said defensively and I could of sworn he was laughing at me with his eyes. I walked to the hallway, glancing one last time at the desk that used to hold my precious phoenix before turning off the light to my room.

I suppose I can always draw a new one.


	4. Adventures in cooking

10 tries... 10 tries at mixing an egg, milk and flour together and I failed at _all of them. _

How. The. fuck. Is that possible? All I had to do was mix the ingredients together, 7 of the wet mixtures I had _ruined beyond repair._ The other 3, I had decided to do a big mixture and then separate it into different baking tins, that was one of the few things I _actually _did right. But, I put them all in the oven at the same time and let them cook... unfortunately due to my ill experience with ovens, and cake making, I was unaware that you had to bake the cakes at a certain temperature. So, I just put the oven its _highest _temperature... they were all dead. I had murdered the cakes... and by that I mean they were burnt absolutely shitless... So, after discarding of the dead cake bodies by throwing them in the bin outside so hopefully Mum wouldn't see it, and now I was headed down the street, Banjo on the leash, going to a bakery to buy a cake. Which I should have done in the first place. After I bought a cake and Banjo freaked out the police men that were 'on patrol' at a nearby donut shop I was 'pulled over'. How the hell can you be 'pulled over' when you're walking a damn dog? And how many stereotypes could these cops cliché? I mean... they were fat, eating at a donut shop, and really stupid.

After that I went back home with the cake, placed it on the island in the kitchen and discarded the evidence that I had bought it at a shop and placed the cake on a fancy plate. I cut the _biggest _piece of cake human possible and scoffed it down as I sat on one of the chairs near the island, licking my fingers.

"You keep eating like that and you'll be the size of the Chrysler building." I stopped licking my fingers and looked in the doorway, there was an old woman with blonde hair in a french knot and in a print dress of sorts. I looked at puzzled at her with my finger in my mouth.

"Don't get up or anything, I'll get myself a cup of tea." She said bypassing me and going straight to the kettle.

"Why are you in our house?" I asked as I finished licking my fingers and the woman sat down adjacent to me near the island.

"You should learn a thing or two about manners young lady. Is that really how you should great someone?" She said in a snarky way.

"And _you _should learn a thing or two about personal property and the charges you can get from walking into someone else's home when you haven't been invited in, nor know the person." I said with the equal amount, if not more, of sass. She gave me a wicked grin and placed a hand underneath her chin.

"You keep up with that sass you may actually last longer than I thought first glance..." She trailed off and I began to woman. Seriously, what is it with people and saying riddles in this house... not to mention random people coming into my house.

"Excuse me? Is that a threat?" I looked at her curiously and grabbed the switchblade in my pocket. Banjo was outside playing in the grass with Mum watering the garden so maybe if I called for him...

"Relax child, I'm not the one that's going to hurt you." She said idly as she twirled a hair around her fingers.

"What the fuck-"

"Haley Banjo is digging up the-" My Mum walked in interrupting my sentence and looked at the two of us. She plastered on a great big smile and walked into the kitchen.

"I didn't know we had a guest!" She said happily and offered her hand to the dragon lady. Dragon lady or 'Constance' gladly took it and shook her hand, smiling back.

"Constance, it's nice to meet you..." She left the sentence open ended and I rolled my eyes at Constance being nice, not two seconds ago she was being a complete psycho.

"Allison. You've obviously met Haley, my daughter." Constance nodded and when my Mum wasn't looking she sent me a wicked grin.

"Oh! Would you like a drink Constance? We have tea, coffee, cappuccino..."

"Tea would be lovely." She said in false happiness. I rolled my eyes again and looked at Mum.

"So, what were you saying before you got interrupted?" I asked her as she walked to the bench and began making dragon lady's tea.

"Banjo is digging up the yard, can you call him off or something? I only just planted new flowers." She said grabbing a mug.

"I'm on it!" I mock saluted her and made my way out of the house and to the back yard, where Banjo was barking at someone. A certain Kurt Cobain look-a-like that just loved my house.

"Hey." I greeted him and motioned for Banjo to heel. He did as he was told and I patted his head. He's such a good dog.

Tate was leaning against a gazebo post, although he seemed a little pissed.

"Hi."

"What's up with you?" I asked as I met him in the gazebo and sat down on the railing surrounding it, Banjo sitting close-by.

"See you met my Mum." He motioned towards the house and I looked back at it before meeting his eyes.

"Constance is your Mum?" I said in disbelief. He nodded and moved away from the post to sit by me. I hadn't really made many friends here... not that I'm bad at it, I just have trust issues now... kind of. But Tate seemed like a cool guy, and he looks like Kurt... therefore, he's not so bad on the eyes.

"I am _so _sorry." I said as I put my hand on his. He smiled at the touch, or my joke, either way, he smiled at me.

"Tell me about it." He muttered and ran a hand through his hair. I couldn't believe Constance was this guys Mum, mainly because the woman was like, 60 and Tate was 17 or so. Huh, must have been in her mid 40's when she had him.

"So, it obviously runs in the family to hang around at someone else's house unannounced." I gave Tate a grin and he nodded.

"You, I don't mind so much... but your Mum?" I said raising an eyebrow and looking back at the house.

"I was in there for like, 30 seconds and I already hate her." That got a smile out of him. He scoffed and nodded.

"She's a cocksucker, my Dad left me when I was a little kid with a cocksucker... You believe that?" I nodded at him. He looked completely disgusted and all around annoyed with the prospect.  
"Actually, yeah. My Dad wasn't exactly the nicest guy around either." That sentence was complete and utter bullshit. He was an asshole. The things he did, more importantly to little girls, that was absolutely fucking disgusting. Although he wasn't my birth Dad, he was the person that had taken care of me and Mum and to go and do those things he did, not only to me, but Mum... Mum had never told him he wasn't my birth Dad though... She had told me after he died, but that was about it. She dropped the subject after that.

"Did he hit you and your Mum or something?" He said, actually interested in what I had to say. Tate was a curious guy from what I could tell. He hangs around in strangers basements, appears out of freaking nowhere, and he's genuinely interested in what I have to say. How many guys are out there that do that? Atleast, with that odd combination of things I can only imagine 2 or 3 at the most.

"Not Mum, but _technically _he tortured me and stuff... He was a Paedophile." I nodded thinking about those horrible 8 months.

"Paedophile?" Tate asked looking absolutely disgusted, screwing up his face at the vulgar thought. That's what I had done, well, that and I had screamed at him when I saw him.

"I know, it's fucking disgusting."I shook my head and patted Banjo who was next to me.

"Did he ever... touch you?" I looked back at up at him. He looked genuinely worried and I smiled at that, he was so nice... maybe a little creepy, but nice.

"Nahh, I'm still a virgin." I said shrugging and then I re-evaluated what I had just said. What the hell was wrong with me? I've only known the guy for less than a week and we were already on the subject of _my _sex life... and I had fucking brought it up!

"I also have no idea why I told you that." I said shaking my head and laughing to myself.

"I don't mind, besides, better than you being a cocksucker like my Mum." I smiled at him and nudged his shoulder with mine.

"You really don't like your Mum, do you?"

"Not even fucking slightly." He said instantly and we both laughed.  
"I guess we both have Daddy issues aswell, huh?"

"Parents... who needs 'em?" There was a silence between us as we sat there mulling over Tate's last words.

"My Mum's not that bad, a little protective after what happened, but that's about it." Tate nodded at the statement and I knew the question that was coming next.

"What did happen?" I became really intrigued with the ground that minute and swung my legs back and forth, getting nervous.

"It's a long story..." I dismissed.  
"Besides, I'm sure there are still news broadcasts on it going around." I shrugged and looked up at Tate.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. You know?" He said with kind eyes.

"You know... it's weird..." I said trailing off and looking back down at the ground, laughing to myself again.

"What is?"  
"You're so kind... But it's like the perfect balance of kind... and crazy stalker." I smiled up at him and he pushed his shoulder into mine, knocking me off of my seat and nearly landing on Banjo. Banjo starting freaking out but I just patted his head and looked up at Tate, trying my best to scowl at him. I failed though and just ended up bursting into giggles. We both laughed as I was sprawled out on the ground in a cross legged position. But, before he could comprehend what I was doing I grabbed his ankle and pulled him off, so he was on the ground next to me. After practically wrestling for a few more minutes we were lying down in the gazebo next to each other.

"So, do you go to Westfield?" I asked rocking my feet back and forth in an almost scissor motion. Tate turned his head to look at me and then shook it.

"Nahh, I dropped out. Who the hell needs it? All those stupid little prissy ass groups and those fucking bullies, nothing but a waste of time."  
"I never said I _liked _going to school. It's a shame you don't though, I mean, it would have been cool to know _one _person." I said as I moved my hands underneath my head and smiled at Tate before sticking my tongue out at him.

"You're so immature."

"Least I'm not a _psycho killer._" I said singing the last part.

"TATE." Someone yelled from across the yard. I looked around in confusion and Tate froze up.

"Who's that?" I asked out loud and looked around. To the right of us was a girl with straight blondish-brownish hair standing in the middle of the grass, hands on her hips.

"I gotta go." Tate said as he got up and walked straight over to the girl who had an angry scowl on her face. They fought in hushed tones for a little while until I felt a little invasive. If they were whispering, it wasn't meant for my ears, so I decided I would just leave them to their private conversation.

"Tate, I'll talk to you tonight, okay?" I yelled to him, he nodded and then went back to fighting with the girl. I motioned for Banjo to heel as we walked into the house.

I don't know who the hell she was but she was not happy _at all _with Tate. Probably a girlfriend or an ex or something. Either way, she seemed like a cow.

* * *

Midnight, tonight. That's when me and Tate were going to meet at the basement. It was 7 fucking thirty and I was bored shitless. I went through all the pre existing bookshelves and books, the only thing really interesting on them was some poem-y book by Lord Byron or something like that. I had read it for 15 minutes and then decided to surf the web for music. Tomorrow me and Mum were going into town to buy lots and lots and lots of things. Mainly clothes for me, since I was running low on clean ones.

At the minute I was wearing a black singlet and track pants aswell as some black fluffy slippers. I sighed and leaned back into the computer chair, this thing was so damn uncomfortable! I need a beanbag or something. Banjo was at my toes underneath the desk, warming my feet. I looked around the room as 'Teeth' by Lady Gaga played. I'm really bi-polar when it comes to music. I'll listen to pretty much anything except for country songs and really, _really _slow, sappy, gooey, songs that make you want to vomit because it's so sweet. At the minute I was in a weird techno mood, so my techno playlist was on.

I caught eye of the blackboard in my room, removed my feet from beneath Banjo, and walked over to it, grabbing the chalk.

I began to draw the outline of the woods, the place I had met Banjo in. I put a cabin, surrounded by trees to the right and Banjo lurking to the left. That's what Banjo was doing first time we met, lurking and snarling.

After my drawing was complete I looked at the time. Only 9:30, still an eternity to wait for Tate. might aswell talk to my Mother.

* * *

Alison had been busy all day, talking to Constance, the real estate agent aswell, who had only popped in for a second or two, and she had been making phone calls. Phone calls about jobs. She had gotten an interview at Westfield, the school Haley was going to go to.

She didn't want her child alone at a brand new place, and she wanted to make sure that no news reporters were going to hassle her. She had a job interview in two days, a new house, her daughter was doing fine, now all she needed was a man. Since her last man was dead to her in every-which way.

"Hey Mum." Haley said as she walked into the living room.

"Hey." She said a little too enthusiastically. Damn, Haley would know something up.

"Why are you so happy?" She asked as she slumped down on the couch. The movement was loud and immediately after it happened, doggy footsteps began descending down the steps, looking for it's master it had misplaced. Banjo ran through the door and jumped up onto Haley's lap wearing a red plaid bandanna around his neck.

"Get laid or something?" Haley asked almost casually as she patted Banjo's head. Alison's face was screwed up in disgust and confusion.

"What kind of monster am I raising?" Haley grinned at her mother from the seat adjacent her.

"An awesome one." Alison rolled her eyes and continued to look down at her book, even though it didn't remotely interest her.

"So... why are you happy again?" Alison sighed before smiling up at her daughter.

"I got a job interview, in two days from now." Haley's eyes lit up at her Mum and she jumped out of her seat to hug her.  
"That's great! Where at?"  
"Westfield. Secretary job. I know you don't want me there but I would feel better knowing-" Haley threw her right hand up and did a flicking motion, signalling her to stop.

"Mum, I don't care! This is soooo good for you! And great news!" She practically squealed.

"Well, it's just an interview..."  
"And you will have it in the bag! Besides, if you don't you can always get down on your hands and knee's and..."  
"Haley Marie!" Alison said shocked and her daughter just faked innocence.

"I was just going to say you could _beg._ That's just nasty... get your head out of the gutter!" Haley scolded and Alison just shook it off.

"You should go out and celebrate." Haley suggested as she sat back down on the couch next to Banjo, scratching his head.

"And how would I do that?" Alison said picking up the book again.  
"Go to a bar, or something, I don't know." Haley shrugged and then, after a minutes silence, Haley face lit up into an ecstatic expression as she practically jumped up and down on the couch in excitement.

"You should! Meet some guys!" She said happily. Alison had been thinking about meeting a new person, but... it just seemed so soon.

"Come on! It would be classified as socialising!" Her daughter pushed the idea. Alison shook her head before agreeing.

"Fine, I'll go to a bar."

* * *

11:55, that was the time. Mum had gone to a bar, after not too much persuasion so I was left alone. Mum needed to go to a bar, socialise, meet a new guy. That's exactly what she needed, and atleast if she didn't meet the guy of her dreams, she'd still be too drunk to give a damn.

I was heading to the basement, down that hallway that for some reason seemed _really _long. As I stopped by the basement door, I looked around for Banjo. Huh, guess he's asleep or something.

I descended down the basement stairs before flicking the light on at the bottom. The whole time looking for any sign of Tate. Nothing.

I rounded the corner, no Tate. Walked a little deeper into the basement, no Tate. Walked back to the stairs, no Tate.

So, there I was, staring into the darkness that only a few nights ago Banjo had been barking at, wondering what had gotten him so scared when I had felt a strong hand clasp around my mouth.

Latex.

**You know... more reviews would just make my day! Not to menion a new chapter to appear! haha :P**


	5. Latex man

A latex hand, was on my mouth, covering my screams. And the person behind me was obviously strong since he had lifted me up off of the ground and my feet were just dangling beneath me. At first, I thought it was a stupid trick Tate was pulling, just him being playful. But, I was wrong. This person wanted to hurt me, his hand was covering my nose and mouth and I could barely breath.

I thrashed against his grip, pulling at his hand, but that worked to no avail. So, I took my chances and kicked a place, no man or woman, enjoys being kicked (contrary to popular belief) his groin. The man let go of me immediately and doubled over onto the ground in pain. As he released me I took a big breath, one I had been longing for, for what seemed like hours, but I knew it was just a few minutes. I collapsed on the ground on all fours and quickly got up to my feet, patting down my pockets for my switchblade.

I couldn't find it.

The man dressed in the latex suit just stood up, and through that mask I can almost see his smile as he waved my switchblade around in his hands.

I looked around the basement for a weapon, all I could find was a piece of 2X4 that had nails sticking out. Better than nothing I suppose.

I took one last look at my attacker before running to grab it. He jumped on me though, and my hand went down on the piece of wood with a disgusting noise. There was a nail now sticking out of my right hands palm, and an S&M rapist on my back.

I screamed as my hand oozed out red liquid all over the rusty nail. The latex rapist pushed down on my hand, jamming the nail in so deep I got splinters from the wood. He then flipped me over, so that he was in between my legs as I laid on my back. I didn't escape a fucking torture dungeon just to be raped and killed 3 months later, that just wouldn't be my style, it wasn't dramatic enough.

The man's eyes were cold and as he reached for the zipper on the latex suit near his crotch, I got my right hand free of the nail, and the whacked him in the head with the piece of wood. He stumbled down off of me and I sprinted for the stairs, I was almost out of the door when he lunged onto me again, grabbing hold of my legs and pulling me down to the ground. I screamed again as he did so, and kicked at him, aiming for his face. After 3 or 4 adrenaline fuelled kicks to the face I was out of his reach again and I immediately got up and sprinted down the hallway, headed for the kitchen, where the phone was.

Of course my Mum wasn't home, I had just sent her away to a bar. The next door neighbour was an absolute bitch and I doubt she would help me, the maid had left an hour ago and of course Banjo was no where to be fucking seen. I was royally screwed if I didn't call the police and find a weapon.

As I entered the kitchen, I felt two hands wrap around me and I instantly began to kick and scream against his chest with my eyes closed. I didn't want to look into those dead eyes. Not ever again.

The assailant started yelling something at me, but I couldn't hear him, I didn't want to.

How could he have bet me here? He couldn't have been faster than me, maybe it was the Jerry and Markus again... maybe they hadn't died, maybe I hadn't killed them maybe-

"Haley!" My attackers voice sounded familiar and as I opened my eyes to get a good look at him, relief flooded my system.

"Tate!" I yelled happily, hugging him as the tears fell freely as I did so.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he embraced me... where to begin.

xxxXXxxx

"Haley, there's nothing down here." Tate said to me as I trailed behind him. I couldn't find Banjo anywhere, I had called him several times but he just wasn't around. After telling Tate what had happened we were down in the basement looking for the rubber man that had attacked me, and my switchblade. Actually, I was the only one looking for my switchblade, if that bastard had taken it I swear I will hunt that latex man down...

"Are you sure you didn't hear him running after you?" He asked as he turned to face me and I looked at him annoyed.

"I'm sure Tate! I would have heard him. The minute I pushed him off it was silent, he didn't even try to chase after me..." I mumbled and made my way to the stairs before slouching on a step.

"You believe me don't you?" I squeaked as I looked at my hands that were cradled in my lap. Tate stepped closer and I pouted as I looked up at him underneath my bangs.

"Of course I do." He said as he sat down next to me and grabbed the wrist of my right hand.

"I doubt you're the kinda girl to thrive off of mutilating yourself." He said, motioning to the gaping hole in my palm.

"I should probably clean that out or something." I said, mainly to myself and Tate nodded.

"The nail was probably rusty, you may want to go to the hospital or-"  
"I have a first-aid kit, I'll be fine." I mumbled and made my way up the stairs. Tate followed behind me, my last comment may have made it seem like I was pissed off at him for not finding latex man, but I wasn't pissed at Tate, I was pissed at myself.

I survived 8 months of either being attacked or hunted down by multiple men, but I couldn't outsmart one man. One man, alone, in my basement, with no guns or back-up. How could I have let him get the jump on me? How could I have been so stupid?  
xxxXXxxx

Tate was fixing me up, in my room. We had grabbed the first-aid kit and apparently Tate had been trained in a first-aid course, either that or he was brilliant at winging it. He was wrapping the bandage around my hand as I sat on the side of the bed, Tate was sitting next to me on the bed as I watched him take care of me. I hadn't said anything after we exited the basement, and I was really worried about Banjo, I hadn't heard from him all night. He was always around when I needed him. Tate finished wrapping my hand and placed the objects he had taken out of the first-aid kit, back into it.

"Done." He said simply before throwing the kit onto the ground and smiling at me.

"Thanks, I owe you one." I said as I flexed my right hand.

"I bet if I get a nail in my left hand I could go to a church and freak some people out." Tate snorted at me and shook his head.

"You were attacked not an hour ago and you're already joking about it?" As he spoke I manoeuvred my legs onto the bed so that I was in a cross-legged position, facing Tate. I shrugged at the rhetorical question.

"Should have seen me after I emerged from the woods after 2 months ,almost 2 months, I went home and practically demanded Mum make me a sandwich because it was her 'womanly duties'... She didn't like that very much." Tate jumped on the bed aswell, moving around me to lie on the pillows next to me, with his hands behind his head.

"Why did you have to escape from the woods?"

"Because, you know when I told you about how I was being held in this cabin thing, when we were strung up like meat hooks?" Tate nodded and I laid down next to him.

"Well, we were being held in a cabin, really deep in the woods, and after we got out of the cabin, we had to manage to get out of the woods aswell. It's where I met Banjo actually." I could feel Tate's breath on the nape of my neck as I faced him. My sentence reminded me of someone I was missing, Banjo.

"That's really badass." I sat up in bed and looked around the room before returning my gaze to Tate.

"Banjo has been gone _way _too long." I said to him before jumping out of bed and heading for the door.

"Help me find him?" I asked him at the doorway, Tate nodded and got up out of bed, following behind me as I walked around the house. Where the hell could Banjo have gone to?

**small update, I know! But, it felt like the right place to stop since next chapter will have a flashback, and not to mention I'll update again tomorrow hopefully! Review, you know you want to. =P**


	6. Found my Banjo!

"Banjooooo!" I whistled for him but, it was to no avail. Tate was standing next to me as we swept around the house, searching for my puppy-wolf.

"Banjo!" Tate yelled, as we walked through the corridor to the basement. As we walked to the back-door I began to hear his whimpers, crying, he was yelping in pain.

"Banjo!" I began to panic as I ran out of the house into the dark night, Tate was running up behind me as I found Banjo, sprawled out on the grass.

"Banj." I whispered, trying to contain my crying. Someone had taken a knife to my wolf, cut it half open and left him here, in pain, bleeding out. I dropped to my knee's and quickly took off my singlet, leaving me in my bra, and gingerly wrapped the wound in it.

"It's okay Banjo, it'll be fine." Tate was next to me now as I patched up my companion. I had already dressed the wound as tightly as I could without taking off my pants and using them aswell, so he was being fairly well taken care of. I smoothed down the fur on him, being careful not to touch him too much.

"What kind of asshole hurts a fucking dog." I whimpered and Tate began patting my back. Good thing I had wore a sports bra or this could have been a whole lot awkwarder. I turned to Tate and looked at his shirt, then to Banjo's wound.

"Can I use your shirt?" I said as I dried a tear from my eye. He nodded and took it off and I took it from him before beginning the process of keeping my protectors insides in the right place. I lifted him up carefully, only a few centimetres though, then I made the torso of the bumble bee jumper go around the wound before tying it up with the shirts sleeves. Banjo whimpered more, and I just gently cooed to him, confirming that it would be alright.

"Should we call your Mum or... something, to take him to a vet?" I shook my head as I put my arms on either side of Banjo, and picked him up.

"Mum'll be too drunk to drive, I'll just take him there myself..." I said as I began walking back to the house with Tate by my side.  
"That cuts a little deep... maybe you should just shoot him or-"

"No!" I yelled, interrupting Tate. He looked kind of stunned at my yelling and by now I was letting the tears fall freely down my face.

"He didn't kill me, I won't kill him." I mumbled as I ran through the house with my beautiful puppy in my arms. I noticed all the blood coming out of him and as soon as I made it into the living room, I placed him on the floor, carefully avoiding his wound.

"I thought you were taking him to the vet?" Tate said from the doorway, and I was already looking around the room with my tear stained eyes.

"No, there's too much blood, and the cuts too deep. He'll bleed out if I don't properly stop it." I said as I patted down Banjo's fur.

"Tate, can you go upstairs and grab the first-aid kit for me, please?" I asked, pleading him. He nodded silently and ran up the stairs. I ran to the kitchen and disinfected my hands before running back to Banjo and putting the disinfectant bottle next to him.

I undid his makeshift gauze and looked at the wound. It went from just above his left front leg, all the way down his stomach to end just above his right leg. Various pieces of Banjo's insides were showing, although the cut wasn't too deep, and I was certain I could stitch it up... hell, I was going to stitch it up.

I sprayed disinfectant on the wound and as soon as Tate arrived with the first-aid kit I fished out a needle and thread.

"That's a really deep gash." He said from behind the couch and I nodded.

"Are you sure you-"  
"I can do it, I just gotta stop the bleeding." As I threaded the needle with shaking hands, barely able to get the string through the stupid, fucking tiny hole. I succeeded to do so and let out a cry of joy.

I began to stitch up my dog, it's kind of creepy this isn't the first time stitching someone up... I pushed the thought from my mind and continued stitching him up, I couldn't let him die.

* * *

_I never realised how cold the woods could be at night, as a matter of fact, it can be fucking freezing. Most of the girls had found that out by now, we were all fine though. Harlii, Janey, Mel,Lisa, Sarah and I were all camping out. There was a fire in the middle of all of us, everyone was shivering and I looked at Harlii. _

_Me and her were practically the leaders of these girls after we escaped, thankfully her father was an outdoorsy type (not to mention a gun nut) and had taught Harlii how to hunt animals as well as were all the good meat came from... In a sense it was kinda creepy, but, thank goodness she was here. I used to be a girl scout (only for a year or two) but atleast in that time I had learnt what way north and south were. Which was helpful (and about the only thing I learnt). So, we were all heading south, in the same direction, in hope the woods would end._

"_Hales..." She said and nodded her head to the side, into the woods. I nodded at her and we both got up and walked to the woods._

"_We have to go back, to the cabin." I looked at her blankly and cradled my arms as I tried to rub them to gain warmth._

"_We just escaped the cabin... why the hell would we-"_

"_I know we just got out," Harlii began, silencing my last sentence, she just had this air about her 'do what the hell I say, or I'll fuck you up'. That was pretty much Harlii in a nut-shell, and I didn't feel like going against her, or getting my ass kicked. Harlii sighed as she rubbed a hand across her face, she was worried, really worried. _

"_But, we're going to freeze to death out here without warmth. Not to mention, it could make the girls go into shock. Then we won't be able to move at _all_." Harlii crossed her arms to her chest and looked at me seriously. Her blonde hair was in a blonde, messy, rats-nest of a bun, complete with stray bangs, framing her face._

"_The cabin obviously had blankets, some place for those guys to sleep. The fire isn't enough, and we need those blankets."  
"So, what? Just drag the girls back there, back to the prison they were locked in for _months. _How do you honestly expect them to handle that? Besides, they can barely walk!" I whispered harshly, but Harlii kept a calm face, she always had a calm face. _

"_I need for you to listen carefully." She began as she stepped closer and I sighed, knowing already she would get her way, she always got her way._

"_I know they can barely walk, and I know they don't want, need, or should have to go back to the cabin." She said as her brown eyes showed a fierceness that only added to the sting of the words. She had this intimidation thing, down pat._

"_That's why, I want you to go. Alone, and get those blankets." Well, fuck me._

* * *

I was lying next to Banjo, he seemed to be doing fine, I had patched him up and he was sleeping next to me, I had moved him up to my bedroom, with the help of Tate of course, who was sitting next to me on the bed as I patted my wolf.

"You really love him, don't you?" Tate said beside me. It had been an hour since I'd found Banjo, and for the past 15 minutes, after we had brought him up here, I had been patting him silently with Tate next to me. My tears had dried though, after I was certain Banjo was going to live.

"Of course I do." I said, dead panning the conversation. I was in a whole other world as we talked, only focusing on Banjo.

"I wish someone loved me as much as you love that dog." Tate said beside me, ad I stopped patting Banjo to look at him.

"What's not to love about you?" I asked him seriously and he just shrugged and seemed to shrink into a little ball almost.

"Tate, seriously, you're one of the nicest guys I know. And, although I've been around a few asshole guys, I've known nice ones too. You care about what I have to say, you don't push me into talking about stuff that you _know _I don't want to talk about. And, I mean, you just saved my fucking life! So tell me, seriously, what's not to love?" It came out more of a scolding than I had intended it, and I'm fairly certain as I talked I _may _have turned into my mother, or my therapist. But, how could he not see how great he was? Tate's face scrunched up into a look that showed despair and sadness, and as a tear slid down his face, I was fairly certain I had crossed some line, or yelled at him too much.

"I've done terrible things," He whispered and the sentence trailed off. He began to sob into his hands and I moved closer to him, placing my hand on his back before squeezing his shoulder.

"We all have, I doubt not one person in this world has done something they don't regret, even the holiest of people." Tate shook his head and he sobbed some more.

"The things I've done aren't the type to be forgiven." I moved closer again, my right-hand was now on his right shoulder and my left was inching towards his chin. I lifted it up, to look into his eyes.

"Everything can be forgiven, Tate. 'When' just depends on the other person." I said smiling to him, he sniffed before smiling back and brushing the hair out of my face.

"Thanks." He said and straightened up in the bed, before glancing at the clock briefly. I patted Banjo and manoeuvred myself under the blankets as best I could, it's hard when on one side there's a 40 kilo wolf and on the other is a 60 kilo or so teenager. I snuggled into the blankets, practically sighing in relief as I did so, it felt good to be warm. I closed my eyes and I actually did sigh as I placed my head on my pillow.

"I'd better go home then." My eyes shot open and before Tate could leave I grabbed his shirt in panic. He was halfway off the bed, so when I grabbed him he fell back down, I looked at him with wild eyes that were pleading.

"Please don't leave me alone." I said, biting my lower lip. I was almost just raped, the last thing I needed was to be alone, in the house, whilst the rapist could still be walking around. Tate looked at me for a second before he nodded. I smiled at him and lifted up the blankets so that he could get under them. When the warmth from Tate's body was finally beside me I closed my eyes and relaxed back onto the pillows.

Tate wriggled a little bit, and we were practically squished onto a quarter of the bed, wolves are _really _big. I turned towards Banjo and ended up making Tate spoon with me. It wasn't a weird spooning that we were both aware of, it was just kind of natural, since we were so enclosed together. I patted banjo and checked over him with my eyes one last time before turning off the lamp next to the bed.

As my eye lids slowly shut to the sound of Tate's breathing next to me, I felt his face hover over my ear.

"I won't ever leave you." I could have sworn I heard him whisper before I fell asleep from exhaustion.

* * *

_It was easy to back-track to the cabin, atleast, I thought it was going to be. As it turns out, walking in the pitch black night with just a small flashlight illuminating your path makes it _very _difficult to see what direction you're going in. We needed the blankets though, and Harlii and I were the only ones who had enough energy (and not a lot of sanity) to make it back to the cabin, and Harlii was the one who could hunt, so she was needed at camp. _

_I had been walking for what seemed like hours, but in reality was probably just half an hour. I dodged large logs, fumbled across small patches of puddles on the ground and tripped over a few tree roots, but other than that my journey so far was normal._

_I continued to walk on until I heard a sound signalling I was in the right direction. A squelch beneath my feet, and the feeling of mud oozing into the holes in my worn shoes, a swamp. The cabin was surrounded by swamp land, so obviously I was in the right direction. I walked on, my shoes becoming thickly clad with mud and almost becoming more mud than shoe. _

_I stopped when I heard it, a snarl, almost like the noise a car makes when it's starting up. I scanned the area with my small torch, brushing over numerous tree branches on the ground before a saw it._

_A fucking coyote. _

_My breath caught in my throat and I tried to back away slowly, but all that seemed to do was make it angry, so I stopped my movement and tried to act calm._

"_Please don't bite me." I whispered to myself as I stood there stiff. Another growling noise, similar to the others began and all my joints seemed to seize as 3 more growls began to bellow around the swamp air. _

"_Umm... Umm... what do I do!"I hissed in a whisper trying to catch my brain up to my actions. Mountain lions, to scare them off you make yourself look big... do I do that? _

_Before I could think about what I was doing, I began to try and make myself look bigger than the coyote's, however, that didn't work. As I flailed my hands around in the air and stood on my tippy-toes all that seemed to do was make them hungrier. I stopped when I noticed the growling continue and looked at the first coyote I had seen. It lunged forward and I moved back, only to realize that the others aswell had moved in closer. _

_I had escaped a god-damn torture dungeon to die in the hands of a fucking pest-y dog... boy was I pissed off. I kicked my feet out, only to have it nipped at by the coyote's teeth._

_By now they had surrounded me, there was no escape. I wasn't meant to live, none of us were. Why would we keep getting tested? Why were we being punished? I couldn't take it, I was hungry, tired, cold, and almost broken. After all the torture and cruelty, I had been broken, perhaps in some sick way I was always going to end up here. _

_Dead._

_Alone._

_Cold._

_Hopeless._

_But, isn't that how everyone's life is at the end? In one way or another, everyone dies like that, but, my death would cause undoubtedly 5 more people's deaths._

_I began to sob as the coyotes came in closer, I had finally been broken... there was nothing left, the Haley I was once was nothing anymore. I was always nothing._

_As I closed my eyes and clenched my fists and eyes shut, awaiting the pain that would soon consume me, and was becoming a close companion of mine, I heard another noise._

_It wasn't a snarl like the coyote's, it was a growl, a low and demanding one. A scarier one. I opened my eyes to look around as I flashed the torch once more. _

_Maybe this was my sign not to give up._

_That's when I saw him for the first time_

_My saviour. _

_My hero._

_My Banjo._

**Sorry this took so long, I was away at work experience and I didn't have any internet for a week. Thanks for the reviews guys! They were amazing! Reviews are the coal that get my writing train moving! :P **


	7. I hate cops

Mum called the cops when she came home, and a doctor, and a vet. They were all at my house at the minute, the vet was looking over Banjo, one of the cops was looking around the house for the latex man, one was talking to me, and the doctor was looking over me as I sat on step of the stairs. Mum was somewhere making coffee for herself and everyone else in the house.

When I woke up Tate was gone, probably had to go home to his Mum, and my Mum had walked in the door, took one look at Banjo and called the cops, a doctor, and a vet. That's my Mum for you though, she just _knows _when you've done something wrong, well, lets face it, a giant bloody hole in Banjo is a little concerning.

"And how did you find Banjo?" The young cop pestered, he was mid twenties, and he seemed like a really nice guy aswell, but I just couldn't be bothered, after everything I was just... annoyed everytime I saw a cop.

"I walked outside after looking around the house for a while and I heard his whimpers. Then, I don't know, a couple of feet away he was on the grass with a giant gash down his side. I carried him inside, grabbed the first-aid kit and stitched him up. After that, I moved him to my bedroom and just fell asleep." The cop nodded and wrote down a few things on his notepad. I wasn't going to bring Tate into this, he hadn't done anything wrong, he was just a friend that was there for me, and repaying him with having a talk to the police wasn't a good present.

"Wait," He said to the notepad before looking at me with an eyebrow raised.

"_You _carried the wolf in here? _By yourself_?" I nodded and before I could tell him I was pretty amazed at the fact I did it aswell, the doctor who was checking out my hands budged in.

"It's not an uncommon thing." The female doctor with auburn hair in a tight bun said as she literally _poked _my palm. I cringed at the pain and she began unwrapping the wound.

"A man in Tucson, a few years back now, suffered from an adrenaline rush as he saw a car hit another boy and pinned him underneath. He lifted the car up and unpinned the boy. I'd say after almost being raped by a man in a latex suit and then finding her dog almost cut in two, the adrenaline was pumping fairly well and fast through her veins." She continued on and I looked at the cop with a 'what she said' look, before he nodded and grinned.

"I suppose lifting a 40 kilo wolf is nothing compared to a car." He mused to himself before looking back at us both.  
"After my partner comes back, we'll leave you be." He said as he dug around in his pocket for something. The doctor looked up at me, rolling her eyes at the officers hopelessness before looking at my, now naked, wound.

"If you need us however," The officer began, silencing whatever the doctor was about to say. He pulled out a little remote with a large button on it.

"Press the button, and one of the units will be down here to rescue you." He winked and I smiled. He _was _nice, just a little disorganised.

"Thank you, officer." I said as I took it from him and he walked away. I chucked it into my jacket pocket before resuming my concerntration on the doctor.

"You dressed the wound well, have you been in a first-aids course before?" I shook my head before answering.

"No, I just learnt it along the way I suppose." She nodded, and took out a few chemicals and placed them on my palm before wrapping it again.

"You're the girl from the news, huh?"

"I have been on the news recently I suppose..." I trailed off after gulping very audibly. I didn't want people to know I was _the girl from the news_. I wanted to start new, I didn't want reports howling at my door like they had back at my old home, I wanted to go to school like a normal teenage girl, and just get back into the swing of things. That wasn't going to happen if people knew I was here.

"It's alright, I won't tell anyone. I'm just worried about your other injuries, if I should take a look at them?" I hadn't really thought about that. I did have other injuries but, I'd just assumed that they had healed, although, my other doctor _did _say I should get my back checked regularly.

"Yeah, I suppose." I looked around the room. The young cop was being handed a cup of coffee by my Mum, who was smiling at him, the vet was tending to Banjo, and I hadn't seen the other cop.

"Can we go somewhere else though?" She nodded and we walked into the living room before shutting the doors behind us.

"Have you had any problems lately? Shortness of breath? Joint pain? Anything I should know about?" She said as I made my way over to the couch and sat on it.

"No, I've been fine." She nodded before pulling out a stethoscope out of her bag of tricks and making her way over to me, putting the icy cold metal underneath my shirt.

"Breath in, heavily for me."

I did.

"Again."

I did.

"Again." She said as she moved the cold metal around on my back. I did as she said, the next time that she asked me to breath in heavily. She put the stethoscope away and turned to me.

"Is there anything else you would like me to check?" A frightful image of her putting on rubber gloves and me gulping even louder than before was pictured in my head... That was _not _going to happen. I'm seriously hope that only happens in the movies.

"If you could check my back, that'd be awesome." She nodded and lifted up my shirt the whole way. She gasped a little, no doubt at the blood soaked gauze on it.

"Is this where the hook-?"  
"Yeah." I interrupted before she could say anything else. My time in the cabin got even worse before it got better, and if Harlii wasn't around I would no doubt be dead. See, after MJ had died, we had all talked about escaping, and a few days after that, they had brought Harlii in. She was like me though, wouldn't break, didn't give a fuck about them, wanted them dead. Two days after Harlii arrived and we were talking again, but there was a minor hiccup.

No, they hadn't heard us, and no, someone hadn't told them we were planning on escaping. But, I was their new play-toy, and I was as stubborn as a damn mule. Before they could get me into _the room_, I had injured one of the men, escaped my chains and injured him more. Unfortunately there were two men, and I had received a butchers hook in my back because of that bastard other man.

The doctor removed the gauze and she gasped again, apparently my flesh was certainly a sight to behold. She spilled some more chemicals on it before placing another gauze on it.

"You should change the bandages regularly, since it's so deep, it wouldn't be good if it got infected." She lowered my top down and packed in her magical objects back into her bag of tricks.

"Is that all?"  
"Yupp!" I nodded and walked up, out of the room, the doctor behind me.

Doc talked to Mum for a bit while the cops talked to each other and bid everyone a 'fairwell', I walked over to the vet though, and to my fallen comrade.

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked as I lowered myself onto my knees and patted banjo's blood matted fur. He was still asleep and the vet had put in an IV into his paw, but Banjo had been a sport about it, after I calmed him of course.

"You did a _very _good job stitching him up." The vet was an older gentleman. Bald head, thick reading glasses plastered on the edge of his nose, aswell as him wearing an old-fashioned suit of sorts. He was bent over Banjo, looking at the quick fix I had done, examining closely, I noticed the way he looked almost impressed. I felt pretty damn proud to be honest.

"I'd say if he was out there another 10 minutes or so, he would not have made it." I nodded along with him as he moved about the fur on my companion to look at the gash.

"I'll have to do them again though, policy I'm afraid." He said looking up from Banjo to me, I nodded along with him, he did this for a living, of course he knew best.

"Besides, I wouldn't want to leave the stitching in, and then find that his lung had been punctured or something." He laughed with little enthusiasm before looking at me seriously.

"I'll have to take him back to the clinic too, get all the sterilised gear, make sure he doesn't get an infection, and that he's knocked out when I search around in there." He pointed to the stomach and I screwed up my nose in disgust at the phrase _search around_. He wouldn't be bloody searching around inside my companion, he'd be making sure that my hero didn't fucking die.

"I'll come with you, to the clinic, for the surgery." I said as I ran my hands along Banjo's back, he wasn't asleep at the minute, his emerald green eyes looking up at me as the vet prodded at him as he lay on his side. No wonder he gets bitten a lot, I wouldn't appreciate a man prodding my wound either! And there was no way I was letting Banjo go through surgery without me. It may seem silly to some, but I wouldn't let him be alone, he never left me alone when I was scared or hurt, not if he could help it.

That's just the bond we had. Banjo was a part of my family, I would do anything for him, even if people say he's 'just a dog', he isn't. First off, he's a wolf, not a damn dog. Secondly, he _saved my life_, how many dogs do that? Thirdly, he was so protective over me, never left my side, always made sure I was safe. He wasn't just a dog, or just a wolf, he was family, a faithful companion.

Dogs aren't mans best friend, wolves are.

"You don't need to do that deary-" The old man shook his wrinkly face and I threw up a had dismissing his sentence.

"Yes, I do." I said as I patted Banjo's head again. He did not like being prodded...

"I'll come too." My Mum voiced from behind us as she walked over, gently bending down and patting Banjo's head.

"He's family." Mum said and I smiled up at her, proud.

She may be hungover, but she still had her senses about her.

* * *

After the surgery at the vets, Banjo was pretty damn tired. We waited around after it, Mum and I, for half an hour, to take him home. The vet found nothing wrong with him, and just cleaned the wound. Although, my stitching had been fine, he was taking precautions. And, I had to admit, I think Banjo liked my stitching better, atleast he didn't have a giant bald-patch on him when I was done with him.

But, we made it home with our druggy in my lap, snoozing away the pain and discomfort. We arrived back at the house in no time, and Mum helped me carry Banjo to his bed. I really could have used that adrenaline rush then, I never really realised how damn _heavy _he could be!

Mum was getting organised for her job interview for tomorrow and I was in my room, listening to 'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance and reading a book. If any song could be my anthem, it would be this one! As I sat on my bed I noticed a foot peeping out from underneath my bed. Not a latex clad foot, a converse clad one.

"Tate, what are you doing here?" I asked the foot, well, not the foot, the owner of said foot. He crawled out the other side of the bed and looked at me solemnly.

"I wanted to check that you were okay."He said as he sat down on the bed, trying to peep at the book I was reading. I moved it away from him, making sure he didn't see the title, but so the pages were still readable by me.

"You suck at hiding." I said with a poke of my tongue and a grin spread across his face.

"Maybe I meant for you to find me." I rolled my eyes at him.

"You keep telling yourself that Tate, it may just come true." I teased before looking down at the pages of my book.

"How's Banjo?"

"Fine, he went to the vets for surgery, and he's a little dopey at the minute, but they didn't seem to cut anything important, so he'll be okay." Tate nodded and looked at my directly.

"That's good, how are you doing though?" I hadn't really thought about me much today. I thought about Mum, Harlii, Banjo, I hadn't taken much notice to me though.

"I'm okay." I said almost dreamily.

"I mean, I haven't really thought about the dude in the suit all day pretty much. And, I've been doing fine so far, you know?" Tate nodded and I placed my right hand on his, squeezing it gently.

"Thanks for staying last night. Between Banjo and everything, I just needed someone to be there." Tate smiled and squeezed my hand back.

"It's fine. I didn't mind being around you at all." He said and I swear to god I went as red as beetroot. Which was weird because I _never _blush... _ever._ I looked down at the books pages again. I have never had a fictional boyfriend before, but dear-god, I would take Jon Snow as my fictional boyfriend _any day... _He just seems so... ooft! And that bastard Joffrey! I'd kill him!

Okay so, I'd only just started reading the books, and I had already finished the TV show, all two seasons... but... I wanted _more_!

"What are you reading?" Tate asked, interrupting my plans flaying Joffrey.

"A game of thrones." I said casually as I continued to read, he was interrupting the good parts!

"What's it about?"  
"It's set back like, a thousand years, but it's in this fictional place. It's got Lord's, kings, dragons, shadow monsters, Warlocks, it's pretty good. I only just started reading it though, I watched the TV show first." I smiled up at him at the last sentence, he scoffed and just rolled his eyes.

"Nerd." He taunted.

"Shut up! What kind of books do you read then, Mr Cool." I know my nickname for him was lame but, he bagged out game of thrones... I love that show/book!

"I read Byron."

"_Byron_? What the fuck is that?" I asked and Tate jumped off of the bed and went to a bookshelf across the room, grabbed a book, and then chucked it at me, it landing right on my previous book.

"It's poetry." He said as he slumped back on the bed.

"You called _me _a nerd, and you read _poetry_?" I asked grinning he shrugged and poked at the poem book.

"You should read it, not that stupid fantasy shit. Broaden your horizon's and learn a thing or two about poems, not about how to slay a fucking warlock." I looked at the book, and back to Tate. I wasn't giving up that easy.

"Okay, here's the deal cowboy. I'll read your pansy ass poems, if you read my nerdy ass book trilogy." Tate groaned in response and I just stepped up my game a little.

"_And _you have to watch the show, with me." Tate groaned louder and slumped down on the bed.

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Because, then we'll have something to talk about." Tate rolled his eyes again before I smiled up at him.

"It'd also give us a reason to meet up, and a reason for you to get away from your Mum." I sing-songed to him. That got Tate's attention. He sent a wicked grin my way and he nodded.

"Fine then."  
"Any nights you can't do?" I asked, referring to a watching schedule of 'Game of thrones'.

"Nope, I'm pretty much good to be here, all the time." I smiled back at him before chucking my book at him.

"Awesome."

**Tim Boyle, that's the story of the adrenaline rush. It is legitimately true, and an adrenaline rush _can _actually happen to everyday, normal people_._ There are actually a few cases of people lifting up cars, and even one of a mother fighting a polar bear to save her son and his friend! She even survived wrestling the bear! (after the neighbour shot it 4 times, mind you) Just so you guys know that Haley didn't magically become a body builder or the hulk =P lol. Am I doing an alright job at keeping Tate in character?**


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